The Great Escape
by RaistlinsElphie
Summary: Tasslehoff helps Raistlin escape from the Abyss, only to get him stuck somewhere that not even a Kender has visited before!
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 Escape**

The fearless Kender and great Hero of the Lance, Tasslehoff Burrfoot, found himself bored. And, as everyone on Krynn knows, there's nothing more dangerous than a bored Kender! As he sat in the jail in Sancrist for the first time in a few months (he was honestly only borrowing that guard's purse and had meant to give it back! Why did everyone overreact so much?), he began to fiddle with his lockpicks in the lock that would release him into the city once more.

"Oh what's the use? There is _nothing_ to do here! I must have done and seen _every_thing on Krynn already! I've been to the past, the future, and everything in between! I've saved the world _count_less times – with little to no thanks from anyone I might add! - flown a flying citadel all by myself, made it through the forest of Wayreth to the Tower of High Sorcery, polymorphed into tons of animals, used a teleporting ring to outsmart a mage, ridden a dragon _twice_, talked to the dead in Darken Wood, escaped from the Abyss, and now I'm going to die the first Kender in all of Krynn to have completed _every_thing there is to do! I'm _miserable!_" Tas dropped his lock pick and, grabbing his long topknot of hair, dried his streaming eyes.

Tas sat down on the straw covered floor of his jail cell and sobbed in sheer misery. After a time, he stood up and, wiping his damp topknot on his red leggings, shook a fist toward the roof of his cell. "What kind of cruel joke is this!?" he demanded, his shrill voice ringing through his cell. "I thought you and I were friends, Fizban!" he shouted indignantly, using the traditional name that Kender use for the Platinum Dragon god of good. "How could you have let this happen? I mean, sure, I enjoyed all of the adventures, but now what am I supposed to do? You left me all alone in this boring world. You even took my best friend, Flint! I bet you two are up there laughing it up, having the time of your lives! Well, afterlives, I guess," he amended, some of the anger going out of his voice.

"I know you must be busy, keeping the Dark Queen in check and all," at this Tas felt a shiver go through him, "but what happened to the good old days when I had all of my friends to adventure with? Now Tanis, Laurana, Tika, Caramon, and even Goldmoon and Riverwind have settled down and had kids to leave me all alone and adventureless. Even Raistlin is too busy being stuck in the abyss to think about poor old Tasslehoff Burrfoot. Well I won't stand for it! Fizban, if you were ever my friend, you will give me a new adventure right this _instant_!" For emphasis, Tasslehoff stomped his foot on the stone floor.

The jolt that he sent through his tiny frame jostled open one of his inner pouches that the guards had neglected to take. Tas looked down at a glittering object that had fallen out and onto his boot. He picked it up and turned it over, examining it in awe and wonder. "It's the magic time travel device," he breathed quietly to himself. He quickly looked around to make sure that nobody was around to see the treasure that he had found and possibly make him surrender it. But, of course, he was alone in the dungeon, well forgotten by the rest of the town. He returned his attention to the device in his hand and began manipulating it, muttering to himself as he did so. "I don't want to go back there… not really, you see. But I have to admit, the Abyss was never boring!"

~*~*~*~

Raistlin awoke with a groan, the way he did every morning since the fateful day he came to the Abyss. He tugged weakly at the chains latched to the manacles on his ankles and wrists, but knew that it was worthless to do so, just like it was every morning before and just like it would be every morning afterward until the end of time.

"I deserve this," he said aloud to himself just to hear his own voice. He often found comfort in hearing a voice, any voice besides the one that came from those 5 dragon heads… He shuddered, longing for the warmth of his velvety black robes and the security of the staff of Magius in his hand. He was too proud to cry, but the urge was great.

"Who's there?" he suddenly demanded, trying to turn unsuccessfully to see where the noise had come from. Every day was the same, and the sound he heard was new, almost familiar. Was Takhisis toying with him? After years of torment, had The Dark Queen finally gotten bored with the same routine and switched things up on him? Unlikely, he thought. He felt a tug on the manacle on his left wrist and craned his neck to see what was happening.

"Hold still, will you?" a familiar, shrill voice replied. "It's hard enough working these locks while my hands and knees are shaking. Not that I'm _scared_ or anything… I just keep getting that same funny feeling that I got the last time I was here. You know, the Abyss really hasn't changed that much. How do Fizban and The Dark Queen stand it? It must be so dull!" with a last little twist, the lock popped and the manacle opened. For the first time in years, Raistlin felt cool air on his wrist. He almost wept.

~*~*~*~

"We have to move quickly," he was telling Tasslehoff as he gathered a cloak around him. It wasn't black and velvet, like he wanted, but it would do for now. "Takhisis will be here soon. She undoubtedly knows of my escape and your presence here will disrupt the whole Abyss if we don't get out of here."

"Yeah, she told me last time I was here that Kender weren't allowed in the Abyss. Why do you think that is? Not that I like it here or want to stay or anything, but I don't think it's exactly fair do you? Don't look at me like that, Raistlin. I'm still a bit upset at you for killing my friend, Gnimsh you know!" Tas pouted in response to Raistlin's impatient glare. "Besides, I still remember the secret to traveling in the Abyss. Just think of where or what you want, and it'll be there waiting for you!" As if in response to his words, the two found themselves standing by a glowing portal that appeared to lead into a small study, obviously unused for quite some time. "See?"

"You imbecile!" Raistlin hissed. "We can't leave through the portal! She will follow us into Krynn and then she will take over, like she tried to do during the War of the Lance!" He snarled, desperation creeping into his voice. "Do not tell me that I have escaped this far only to be thwarted by this, or else to play into her hand again!"

"Don't be silly," Tas said, reaching into one of his many pouches. "I was only proving a point. I've brought this – it's how I got here." He grinned and held up what appeared to be an ordinary pendant.

"The device!" Raistlin breathed. He reached for it, but Tas jerked his hand away with all the quick deftness of a Kender. Raistlin's eyes narrowed, the hourglass pupils becoming quite small and giving him a rather sinister look indeed. "Give it to me now, Tas, or-"

"Or _what_?" demanded Tas archly. "You _owe_ me, Raist! Not only did I save you from ruling over nothing as the only god, but you also killed my friend Gnimsh!" he shouted shrilly, tears filling his eyes at the memory. Raistlin did not seem convinced and leapt at Tas again, but the Kender danced out of the way. "_And _I just helped you escape."

As if to prove him wrong, a dark shadow fell across the two. They both looked up instantly to see the largest and most fierce dragon either had ever seen. Raistlin let out a cry of anguish at the sight of the body swirled before his eyes, becoming all colors and none at the same time. The five heads, each representing a different color of the evil dragons, let out a cry of rage at the same time."

"Guess I better get moving, huh?" said Tas, swallowing hard. He began to manipulate the device with trembling hands.

"Work faster, damn you!" cried Raistlin hysterically. "She's coming nearer!"

Sure enough, when Tasslehoff stopped a minute to look up, the massive form above them was closer than before, the shadow in which they stood becoming even larger.

"Wow… was she always this big?" Tas asked in awe.

"The device, you idiot! We have to escape!"

"Oh right!" Tas' hands swiveled and turned, the device becoming a jeweled scepter in his small hands. He smiled up at Raistlin triumphantly. "It didn't fall apart this time. Don't worry; I know you didn't _mean_ to give me the wrong directions back in Ishtar. I'm sure you had a lot on your mind, what with the Cataclysm and everything on its way. By the way, Lady Crysania is doing well. She's blind from whatever happened in the Abyss when she was here with you, but she's the head of Fizban's church now. I guess you would know him as Paladine, but he told me it's ok for me to still call him Fizban. Do you remember how he- oh, not time for a story?"

"So help me, Tasslehoff Burrfoot, if you do not get us out of here you will be the first Kender to be allowed to stay in the Abyss – _permanently_!" Raistlin shouted. The sudden change from his normally soft half-whisper startled the Kender into action.

"Uh, where to then? Wow, she's really close!" Tasslehoff commented.

"To my laboratory so that I might get my staff and robes and retake my tower. Dalamar has ruled there too long, calling himself master where he is not." Raistlin grabbed Tas' arm. Just as the ground thundered with the impact of the dragon landing near them, the stones around the portal began to sing and they disappeared. The last sound they heard was five simultaneous shrieks, the most terrifying sound that either of them would ever hear.

~*~*~*~

They reappeared in Raistlin's study. He was mildly surprised to see that nothing had been changed since he entered the portal those many years ago. He let his delicate fingers trace trails in the dust on the table to his left, searching the room for the item he most desired. His eyes moved across his old spell books, the spell books of Fistandandilus, and the dried blood stain on the floor under his old table, and finally came to rest on the wooden staff with the golden dragon's claw clutching the familiar orb in its claws – the Staff of Magius.

Meanwhile, Tasslehoff was buzzing around the laboratory, poking at dead things in cages curiously, when a pair of ominous white eyes appeared in front of him. A disembodied voice, seeming to come from everywhere and yet nowhere all at once, made Tas shudder and step back quickly.

"No one is to enter this room, lest they wish to suffer a quick and painful death… Yet I have the key here…" An outstretched hand materialized under the eyes, holding a key. "How did you get in here?" the voice demanded.

Before Tasslehoff had time to reply, Raistlin stepped in between the eyes and Tas' shaking topknot of hair. "I am the master of this tower," came the soft whisper from under the black velvet hood. "And you will stand aside… Shirak…" at the last word, the orb of light on top of the staff of Magius began to glow, filling the room with hollow white light.

"Massster…" the voice hissed. "But you are trapped in the Abyss for all eternity…"

"And I, the greatest mage in all of Krynn _and_ the Abyss, have escaped. Who set you to this task?" Raistlin demanded.

"Dalamar… Your apprentice…" replied the voice.

"And where is Dalamar the dark?" Raistlin said with a sneer.

"He is now head of the order of the black robes… He resides in the Tower of High Sorcery at Wayreth now…"

Raistlin turned to Tas, who was trying to get a good look at the creature behind Raistlin's form. "Tas, give me the device. We are going to pay my apprentice and the other mages at the Tower of High Sorcery a little visit…"

"No way! Caramon gave this to _me_!" said Tas. Seeing the look on Raistlin's face, he added quickly. "Uh, that is, I can take you there though."

"Good, let us be off. Concentrate all of your being on the tower and we will arrive there shortly." The stones around them began to sing as Tasslehoff manipulated the device. But he wasn't thinking of Wayreth…


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 – Festival**

As soon as he reappeared, Raistlin knew something was wrong. He immediately rounded on the Kender, holding the Staff of Magius high above his head threateningly.

"Where are we, Tas?" he demanded quietly.

"I don't know, I swear!" squeaked Tas, jumping nimbly out of Raistlin's reach. "But hey, you look different. Uh, _better_ even! Almost the same as before you took that silly wizard's test!"

Raistlin looked down at his pale skin and started, nearly dropping the Staff of Magius. Then he suddenly realized how odd he felt. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was something amiss… He searched the sky for Nuitari, the black moon that only he could see, and realized what was wrong.

To be sure, he tried to call to mind a spell, any spell. He snarled and rounded on Tas. "My magic! It's _gone_!" he snarled, a note of panic creeping into his voice.

"Really? Are you sure you didn't just forget? No? Ok, um… Oh! I know! It's dark – make it light with your walking stick!" Tas indicated that he meant the Staff of Magius by pointing with is hoopak.

Ignoring the misclassification of the Staff of Magius, Raistlin sighed and muttered "Shirak," smiling a thin lipped smile when the orb that was always clutched firmly in the dragon's claws began to glow. "At least there's that…" he mumbled to himself. He drew a breath as if to say something to Tas, but was taken by a violent coughing fit.

"Are you ok, Raist? Can I get anything for you? Jeez, you don't have to look at me like _that_, a simple 'no thanks,' would have been fine." Leaving Raistlin to his coughing, Tas began to wander a bit along the path. He came to a clearing and saw in the distance a big, though crude, castle. Further behind the castle, Tas was almost positive that he saw a tower.

"Raistlin, I think I found the tower, it's this way!" Without looking to see if Raistlin was following, Tas frolicked down the path, stopping every so often to look at something interesting along the way.

When Raistlin finally stopped coughing and wiped a bit of blood on the sleeve of his velvet robe, Tasslehoff was nowhere to be found. "Just like old times," he said to himself with a sigh.

~*~*~*~

Lilly was dressed in her favorite green corset and dress, showing off her not-quite-impressive cleavage to the clerk with whom she was trying not to flirt. Sierrie rolled her eyes and smoothed a wrinkle out of her floor length blue dress. Lilly was completely absorbed in talking about the necklace that she would never really buy, so Sierrie took the opportunity to look around at the other inhabitants of the fair grounds.

There were people everywhere, all mingling or shopping in the light given by only the moon and a few torches and candles. Women wearing anything from elaborate bodices and gowns to skimpy belly dancing attire; men mostly in tights and vests, or frilly shirts with puffy sleeves. She smiled to herself – the fair was fun at least. She turned back to her friend to see that she had, as expected, opted to not buy the necklace.

"So what should we do next?" Lilly asked. "Want to wander around and talk to people?"

"Sure, but we've only got about 20 minutes until the joust starts." Sierrie replied. "Lead the way," she added unnecessarily; Lilly was already skipping toward a particularly curiously dressed man. He was robed all in black velvet and carrying a wooden staff with a golden claw at the top clutching a glowing orb. Sierrie thought that the man didn't look like he wanted to be bothered, but Lilly had no such thoughts.

"Greetings, sir" said Lilly in her best old English accent. "My name's Lilly and this is my dear friend Sierrie. What might your name be, and what brings you to this glorious fair?"

The hooded figure stopped and looked at Lilly. Strangely glittering golden eyes with pupils in the shape of hourglasses were all that the girls saw. The eyes narrowed a bit in response and the man turned away.

"Thee dost not have to be like _that_," Lilly said in response. "Perhaps if ye were to not have on such a tiresome and suffocating cloak, ye would be a bit friendlier," she said with a wink that was lost on the back of the man's head.

"Forgive my friend," Sierrie said to the cloaked figure, grabbing Lilly's arm to lead her away from the obviously disgruntled man. Lilly pouted for a moment, but was startled out of her pouting by a loud shout from a nearby vendor.

"Get back here, you thief!" came the shout from the stall behind the group. The three turned in time to see a short figure wearing bright blue leggings and sporting a long topknot headed straight for them, followed closely by an angry shopkeeper.

"Run!" Lilly shouted.

"Huh?" demanded Sierrie in confusion. As she started to move, Tas met up with the party and bumped into her, knocking her into Lilly. Lilly stumbled forward and stepped on the man's cloak, causing him to fall with her on top of him.

"Hi Raist!" the figure in blue leggings chipped merrily. "We should really be going. I don't want to see the jail of this place before we've even figured out what this place is. Hey, Raist, what are you doing down there? Uh, sorry," he said, turning to Sierrie.

"This your kid?" she asked over her shoulder of Raistlin, and then smiled upon seeing her friend and Raistlin in an interestingly precarious position. She grinned and pulled something out of her pocket, then slipped it quickly back in.

"No, it isn't," came Raistlin's hissing response from under Lilly whose face was a bright shade of crimson.

"Uh, you mind?" she said weakly, her cheeks glowing even brighter, if that was possible. Her eyes trailed down to Raistlin's hands. One was still clutched on the Staff of Magius, but the other was raised as if to protect himself from Lilly's weight. Instead, he had managed to grope the top part of her corset.

Raistlin frowned and used the offending hand to push Lilly off of him. All four looked over to see the shopkeeper drawing quite near. Tas suddenly leapt up and sprinted down one of the dirt streets in the opposite direction.

"Hey, my camera!" Sierrie shouted, putting her hand to her empty pocket and taking off after him. "Get back here you little shit!" she panted, reaching for his streaming topknot of hair.

Lilly was dusting herself off and glaring at the back of Raistlin's head when a melody came from her own purse. "Shit, we're late for the joust! I'll meet you there, Sierrie!" Lilly shouted after her friend. She grabbed Raistlin's hand and jerked him, unsuspectingly, down a different path between shops.

Raistlin stumbled after her, too surprised to protest. He began to cough and Lilly finally let go of his hand and stopped running when he doubled over to clear his lungs. She looked around and smirked. "We've lost him!" she announced.

When Raistlin was able to speak again, he glared at her. "He followed Tasslehoff and your friend, you twit," he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Oh," Lilly said nonchalantly. "Well, the joust is this way, and that's where Sierrie said she'd meet me. Come on, I bet your friend will be there too." Making sure that Raistlin was following her, she made her way toward the jousting field.

~*~*~*~

Sierrie was following Tasslehoff's erratic path through the fairgrounds fairly easily. While Tas was nimbler and quicker, Sierrie had the benefit of knowing where she was going. The shopkeeper, however, had the same thing going for him and was also keeping pace fairly easily. She looked down for a moment, panting, when suddenly she heard the whinny of a horse.

"Look out!" she shouted to Tas, just in time to see him run underneath the horse's legs. She pushed her way past the guards on either side of the parade, muttering quick apologies a she did so, and ran behind the carriage holding the Queen. The shopkeeper was stuck behind the rest of the parade, she knew. One obstacle down, anyway.

Sierrie looked first left, then right, then straight ahead. Just when she was about to resign herself to needing to buy a new camera, she saw a topknot of hair and the odd staff that the kid had been walking with and grinned. He was headed toward the pub, she saw. She could easily cut him off there, and maybe even make it back to the show in time to get a few pictures of the jousters.

Taking a smaller footpath between two shops, Sierrie finally plopped down on one of the benches to catch her breath. A minute or so later, she saw that familiar topknot and staff squeezing through the crowd. Just before he walked into the pub, she stepped right in front of Tas.

"Caught you, you little thief!" she said, grabbing him by the topknot and jerking him as hard as she could toward the pub. "Where's my camera?" she demanded.

"Ow! Hey, that hurts!" Tas yelled. A few patrons looked over at Sierrie, their accusing stares making her blush.

_They probably think I'm abusing my little brother or something_, she thought. She released her grip on his hair slightly. "I'll let you go if you give me back my camera," she said firmly, working hard at not sounding pissed off in front of all of the pub goers.

"Your what?" Tas said, utterly confused. He reached his hand into his pocket and withdrew the camera. "Oh this? You must have dropped it when that angry shopkeeper started chasing us. You should really be more careful with your things, you know. You're lucky I was there to pick it up for you, or you might have lost it." Tas handed the camera back to Sierrie, who quickly stuffed it into her purse and zipped the bag shut.

"Whatever… Ugh, I'm so late for the joust," she mumbled.

"A joust? Sounds like fun! Can I come?" Tas didn't wait for a response and simply followed Sierrie down the street to the jousting ring. Lilly and Raistlin were already there and listening to the announcer call the names of the first contestants.

"You're just in time!" Lilly said happily. "Pull up a hay-bail and have a seat. They're just about to start!"

"I've never been to a joust before," Tas chimed in, just as happy as Lilly.

"You've been in enough _real_ battles that a joust should be nothing new," Raistlin said icily. Tas ignored him and stood on his hay bale to get a closer look.

"Hey, neat ears!" said Lilly, seeing the delicately pointed tips closer now that Tas was about her height. "Where did you get them?"

"Wow! Look at that! Are they really going to knock each other off of their horses with those lances? Those are so much bigger than the dragonlances I used! Did I ever tell you about the time that I rode on a dragon? His name was Fireflash! My friend Flint was there – he's a dwarf you know. Wow! Look at that! He's really bleeding!" Tas exclaimed upon seeing the collision of the two horsed figures.

"No he's not…" said Raistlin, eyes narrowing. "This is fake…" There was a hint of suspicion in his voice.

"Yeah," said Lilly. "I've talked with a few of the jousters." She leaned in and said in a half whisper to Raistlin, "They use chocolate for the blood – looks totally fake!"

"Awe, come on," said Sierrie, snapping a picture of the winner's victory lap around the ring, "There's no need to ruin it for the kid! It's his first time; let him bask in the magic of it all. Don't you remember our first time here, Lilly?"

"Who are you calling a kid?" demanded Tas grumpily. "Reorx's Beard! There they go again! Wow! That Black Knight is great! He hasn't lost yet!"

"I'm sure that he would be no match for me in an honest fight, Tas," said Raistlin, obviously irritated. His eyes kept drifting over the walls of the fairgrounds as if seeking something. Lilly was too wrapped up in the joust to notice, and Sierrie was taking another picture.

"I'm going to move closer, see if I can get a better shot," Sierrie said, making her way through the crowd.

"No way, really Raist? Even without your magic, you'd take on a jouster as awesome as the Black Knight?"

Raistlin smirked. "I still have the Staff of Magius, don't I?"

"He just took down another one, Raist! You better go before there's no more challengers left!" Tas exclaimed excitedly.

"Now that's something I'd love to see," Lilly said with a laugh in what she had thought was a light tone. Apparently her words had scored on a deep wound. Raistlin snarled and pulled the hood up over his auburn hair, leaning on his staff and walking toward the ring. Lilly shrugged and returned her attention to the ring.

Three more opponents went down to the Black Knight, and Tasslehoff was just as remorseful for all three. Then a black robed and hooded figure made its way onto the field at the opposite end from the Black Knight.

"Huh? Must've changed the story this year…" said Lilly. "I'm going to go find Sierrie to make sure she's getting pictures of this," she told Tas. In all honesty, she wanted to see the new show up close. She was just as excited as Tas, who followed along behind her happily.

They met up with Sierrie when the announcer sputtered in confusion something about the cloaked challenger on the field. "He didn't say anything about being a performer here, did he?" Sierrie asked Lilly.

"To be honest, he didn't say much of anything at all to me," Lilly admitted.

"I don't like this…" remarked Sierrie, snapping another picture. She noted that the horse looked uneasy as well, stomping its hooves and flattening its ears against its head as Raistlin raised his staff over his head.

"Show 'im Raist!" Tas shouted shrilly. "Nobody messes with a black robed wizard, right?" Tas grabbed his hoopak and began to play a high pitched, whirring tune on it. Lilly clapped her hands happily as the horse started running toward Raistlin, bearing the Black Knight toward his new challenger.

Even though the crowd was silent with anticipation, no one could hear the word that Raistlin spoke from under his black hood. Just when the muttering came from under his hood, a fireball shot from the top of the Staff of Magius and knocked the Black Knight off of his horse and into one of the wooden fence posts around the ring, breaking the post in half.

For a moment, the silence lingered, then the crowd stood up and every cheered. Raistlin gave a slight bow and made his way to the ring's exit where Tasslehoff, Lilly, and Sierrie were waiting to greet him.

"That was amazing!" exclaimed Lilly. "I've never seen special effects like those before – not in person anyway! Did you get a picture of that, Sierrie?"

"Of course," Sierrie replied with an approving smile.

"I can't wait to see how it turns out!" Lilly replied. "You guys wanna come back to our place after the fair? It's about time to leave."

"Sure!" said Tas happily.

"Time to leave?" asked Sierrie. "it's still early." Lilly frowned and pointed over Sierrie's shoulder.

"Where do you think _you're_ going?" demanded a rather angry looking guard. "Who authorized you to go on the field?"

"I won, didn't I?" remarked Raistlin.

"Won? This was a show! Or did you fail to notice that the lances they were using were made of plywood and filled with glitter?"snarled the guard.

"I was just giving the crowd something to cheer for…" said Raistlin coldly, turning to walk away. The guard grabbed him by the arm and held the thin young man fast.

"You're under arrest… We can't have people interrupting our shows like that. You can either sit in the jail all day or-"

"There he is!" shouted a familiar shop keep's voice.

"Uh oh," said Tas, hiding behind Raistlin.

"That's him!" said the store owner. "He's the one who took the mask from my shop!"

"What, you mean this?" said Tas, pulling a small leather mask from his inner pocket and holding it up to the man. "I was just going to show it to my friend here. I was going to give it back. In fact, I've been looking for you at the joust – you're lucky I found you!" said Tas, handing the mask back to the befuddled shop keeper. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we are going with these two ladies to dinner," said Tas, grabbing Raistlin's hand firmly and pulling him away from the guard.

"To be safe, I think you had better let me escort you to the front gates," the guard said with a growl. Lilly sighed and Sierrie groaned.

"You better not have gotten us kicked out," said Sierrie.

"Where are you guys parked?" Lilly asked.

"Oh, we don't have a carriage or horses, if that's what you mean," said Tas. "We walked!"

"Hmm… you must live close by then," commented Sierrie. "We're a few miles away, but I'll drive. It's no big deal."

"But I wanted to drive home," Lilly pouted.

"Do you remember what happened last time you drove?" demanded Sierrie.

"Oh yeah…" said Lilly, trailing off into thought. It was Sierrie's turn to sigh as the guard showed them out the front gates.


End file.
